H 1 



ADDRESS 



Hon.R.C v PARSONS, 



BEFOR : THE 



PIONEER ASSOCIATION. 



NORTH SOLON, OHIO, 



AUGUST 30, 1876 



CLEVELA JD, OHIO: 

LEADER PRIKTIXG CoMl'V.Y, 146 SUPERIOR STREET. 



ADDRESS 



OF 



/ 

Hon. R.C. PARSONS, 



BEFORE THE 



PIONEER ASSOCIATION, 



NORTH SOLON, OHIO, 



AUGUST 30, 1876. 







CLEVELAND, OHIO: 

LEADER PRINTING COMPANY, 146 SUPERIOR STREET. 
1876, 



• « 



The following note will explain itself: 

Hon. R. C. Parsons: 

By a vote taken at the Annual Pioneer Meeting, 
held at North Solon, August 30th, a Committee was 
appointed by the Chair to ask for a copy of your Address 
for publication. If consistent, will you at an early day 
favor the Committee with a copy, and oblige 

H. W. Curtiss, 
S. Patrick, 
C. W. Hemry. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I am here this morning because I feel under a 
great personal debt to the people of Solon. For nearly 
a quarter of a century they have been my warm and 
steadfast friends, and to them I owe a large and generous 
debt of gratitude, which time will serve rather to increase 
than diminish. And though no man can be more pain- 
fully conscious than myself, of my utter inability to fill 
the place of the distinguished gentleman, our friend 
General Garfield, who was expected here to-day, nor in 
the limited time allowed me for preparation can I do but 
scanty justice to myself, yet I felt bound, at any sacrifice 
of personal feeling, to come here in answer to your 
urgent call, and do the best in my power to entertain 
you for a few moments with some thoughts suggested by 
your gathering. 

I shall not attempt to retrace the history of your Soci- 
ety, or take up your time in recalling the scenes in 
which so many of you have been actors, and with which 
all of you are familiar. All this has been done, and 
faithfully done, by those more familiar with the subject 
than myself, and who in former times have carefully pre- 
served, and laid away for future use, the noble records of 
the pioneers of the Reserve. 



In this age of luxury, extravagance and wealth, with 
the iron-horse rushing by our dwellings, making neighbors 
of those separated by a continent ; with the telegraph 
"putting a girdle 'round the earth in forty seconds," ena- 
bling men to converse with each other though widely 
sundered as the poles, the very word "pioneer" awakens 
a sensation in our bosoms like gazing upon the ruins of a 
by-gone age. 

What a debt do we owe those noble men and women 
who, through good report and evil report, through 
perils often by day and by night, amid hunger and 
loneliness, with painstaking, self-sacrifice and noble am- 
bitions, laid low the primeval forests, scattered the wild 
beasts, and the still wilder savage ; plowed and sowed, 
and turned the wilderness into a garden ; laid broad and 
deep the foundations on which our free institutions are 
built, education and religion, leaving to their descend- 
ants the land we now enjoy — a land sacred to liberty, 
protected by law — a land that, in all its mighty length 
and breadth, is not large enough to hold within its bor- 
ders a single slave — a land of Christian civilization — the 
ripe, consummate fruit of the experience of ages. 

Most of the early pioneers of the Reserve have calmly 
folded their hands, and laid down in the quiet earth to 
their last dreamless sleep. Here and there may be seen 
a silver-haired old man or woman, whose days have been 
lengthened out to a green old age, and who, like shocks 
of corn fully ripe, are waiting to be gathered like their 
fathers by the Great Reaper. I greet those of them who 
are here to day with all reverence and honor. I thank 
them, in the name of our common humanity, for their 
noble labors, and for the rich and precious examples 



they have taught by their virtues; and I earnestly trust, 
that when their work on earth is ended, they may find 
that "better country" where "toil and privation" are utter 
strangers, where rest and peace is an eternal heritage. 

A few weeks ago, I stood in the midst of the Coliseum 
in ancient Rome, and gazed with awe upon that stupen- 
dous ruin. As you know, it was designed by a Christian 
architect and martyr, and was commenced by the Empe- 
ror Vespasian seventy-two years after the birth of our 
Saviour, and dedicated by Titus ten years after the 
destruction of Jerusalem. As I looked upon that vast 
theater, once capable of seating eighty thousand specta- 
tors, standing in its grandeur and magnificence as it 
stood eighteen hundred years ago — as its tragic and ter- 
rible history came crowding into my mind, then I began 
to realize something of what it meant, to be a pioneer in 
that great religion which the Master said was "Peace 
on earth and good will to men." 

Yes, thought I, here within these very walls, on the 
soil hallowed by their heroic sufferings and sacrifices; 
here, in the midst of the arena where now I stand, died, 
in the midst of the jeers and scoffs of the cruel and 
heartless spectators, those pioneers of the truth "of whom 
the world was not worthy," the Christian martyrs. Prob- 
ably, within the space enclosed by those mighty walls, 
there has been more of human suffering, more fearful bar- 
barities enacted, than upon any other place of equal extent 
upon earth. The records of the Church are crowded 
with the names of men and women who perished, 
for "Christ's sake," on that dreadful spot. Wherever the 
Christian religion obtained its converts — no matter in 
what part of the earth — subject to the Roman jurisdic- 



8 

tion, there were they arrested by the cruel governors of 
Rome, in order "they might be butchered" to make a 
Roman holiday. In the time of Trajan, that great and 
noble teacher, scholar and Christian leader, Ignatius was 
brought from Antioch, the place where the Christians 
received their name, to be devoured by wild beasts in 
the Coliseum. Here are still in perfect preservation the 
cages where the wild beasts were confined and starved 
to maddening ferocity. There are the dungeons, with 
walls of incredible thickness, open for light and air only 
in front, and that looking directly into the midst of that 
awful amphitheater, where the hopeless victims, spared 
for to-morrow, must see the victims of to-day meet their 
end ; where the only sounds that met their ears were the 
exultant howls of the populace over the sufferings of the 
tortured martyr, the shrieks of the sufferer, or the savage 
roar of the wild and famished beasts as they roamed 
around, eager for blood, panting for their prey. What 
exalted faith, sublime courage and holy zeal must 
have been given to those men and women, the real 
pioneers of the truth ! With what unfaltering hope did 
they lay down their lives, in the belief they might attain 
a "better resurrection." 

Out of the very air around me I seemed to hear these 
words : "What are these which are arrayed in white robes, 
and whence came they?" "And I said unto him, Sir, 
thou knowest. These are they who came out of great 
tribulation." "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any 
heat." 

Close by the Coliseum are the remains of the gorgeous 
palace of the Caesars. Here lived in imperial luxury 



and voluptuousness the Emperors of Rome, who ruled 
the world. From the windows of the palace they could 
see the "seven hills," and look over a large portion of 
the city they ruled. Far across the Campagna stretched 
the Viaduct, still standing as a monument to the genius 
and power of the Roman people. On the left stood the 
Forum of Julius Caesar, where Cicero thundered, and 
whose walls had echoed to the voices of Caesar, Brutus, 
Pompey, Mark Antony, Cataline, and indeed all the 
great heroes of Roman history. In this palace Caligula 
lived, four years after the crucifixion of our Lord, and 
here are the remains of the yellow and golden palace 
of Nero, whose splendors and costly adornings put to 
shame the story of Aladdin. Close by, and leading out 
of the city, was the "Appian Way," the most celebrated 
roadway in the world. It was begun by Appius Clau- 
dius, three hundred and twelve years before Christ, 
stretching across the Campagna, and connecting Rome 
with Southern Italy, Greece, and the eastern possession 
of the Roman empire. 

Beyond the wall of the city, but in plain view, was the 
spot where St. Paul was beheaded. His sacred remains 
were carefully preserved by the Christians of his day, 
and over them is now erected one of the most costly and 
magnificent cathedrals of the world. Here, if in any 
known spot, rest the ashes of the Great Apostle. As you 
stand over his tomb, you hear his voice saying, "1 have 
fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I 
have kept the faith." Among the earliest of the martyrs, 
before the Coliseum was completed, the persecutions of the 
Christian disciples had begun to rage, and St. Paul and 
St. Peter both sealed their belief with their lives — the 



10 

one going to the block, the other to the more terrible 
crucifixion. 

But the Emperors of Rome have vanished from the 
earth, with all their lordly retinues. Their splendid pal- 
aces have crumbled in the dust. Almost their names 
have passed from the memory of mankind. But the 
names of some of those humble martyrs, whom they 
tortured and persecuted, the pioneers of the faith taught 
by Him who died on Calvary will live sweet in the hearts 
and memories of men forever. 

As one travels over the earth, he is forcibly reminded 
of the great truth, "that the fashion of this world passeth 
away." I have just finished reading a most charming 
and attractive book, written by one of my own gifted 
townsmen, who is with us to-day (Mr. Fogg), called, 
"Arabistan, or the Land of the Arabian Nights." I have 
followed the author in my mind through all his wander- 
ings in Egypt, Jerusalem and Arabia. I have been with 
him to the ancient cities of Bagdad, Babylon and Nin- 
eveh. The desolation and decay that have swept these 
once imperial cities almost into oblivion, tells the story 
most forcibly of the vain effort of mankind to perpetuate 
their history or their memories. While the ruins of their 
most imperishable works remain, the names of their 
builders have gone beyond the hope of resurrection. 
Yet men toil for honor and fame, and will do so to the 
end of time. But the monuments of one age are erased 
by those of another, and in a few centuries the names 
of those great men most familiar to us, will give place 
to the heroes of a later and different civilization. 

As we look upon our own great State, with her teem- 
ing millions of industrious people, her wide-spread useful- 



11 

ness and acknowledged power among the States of the 
Union, we can scarcely realize the fact that within the 
life-time of some of your own pioneers, the first white 
family was on its way in a covered wagon from New 
England to found a settlement in Ohio. The men who 
originally settled Ohio were of the race of Puritans 
who settled in New England. They were bold, brave, 
hardy men and women, careful against danger, but able 
to meet it. Their religious belief was that of their 
fathers, and they loved liberty of conscience and liberty 
of action, because they knew how costly a price had 
been paid to secure them. The story of the Mayflower, 
and the sufferings of those devoted pilgrims had been 
graven on their hearts, and they brought to the State of 
Ohio, and especially to the Western Reserve, the habits, 
the desires and the practices of their ancestors. 

I never think of our Pilgrim fathers, driven from the 
land they loved, seeking these barren shores for the 
honor of God, and the liberty of worshiping Him accord- 
ing to the dictates of their own consciences, without 
emotion. To them we owe so much of what we now 
enjoy. For within the compass of that little bark the 
germinal principles of civil and religious liberty, which 
so long had been struggling into being, assumed a local 
habitation and a name. On board that humble vessel 
the first charter of American liberty was drawn and 
signed. Carlyle says in one of his books : "Look now 
at American Saxondom, and at the little fact of the sail- 
ing of the Mayflower two hundred years ago. There 
were struggling settlers before — some material as of a 
body was there, but the soul of it was this. These poor 
men, driven out of their own country and not able to 



12 

live in Holland, determined on settling in the New 
World. Black, untamed forests are there, and wild, sav- 
age creatures, but not so cruel as a star-chamber hang- 
man. They clubbed their small means together, hired a 
ship — the little ship Mayflower — and made ready to set 
sail. Ha ! these men had, I think, a work. The weak 
thing, weaker than a child, becomes strong if it is a true 
thing. Puritanism was only despicable, laughable then, 
but nobody can manage to laugh at it now. It is one of 
the strongest things under the sun at present." 

There was Elder Brewster, with his open Bible, com- 
mending his little flock to Him who holds the seas in the 
hollow of His hand. There was the accomplished Winslo w 
and his noble wife giving up home, friends and country to 
share the common fate in store for the Pilgrim. There 
were Carver and Bradford and Allerton, and there was 
Miles Standish, the brave and gallant soldier, with his 
beautiful wife Rose, that tender and delicate flower, so 
soon to be transplanted, to bloom in a "better country," 
whose oldest fashion is immortality. But all this thrice- 
told tale is as familiar to you as household words, and I 
will not weary you by needless repetition. But you would 
expect the descendants of such men and women would, 
in founding a great State like Ohio, lay broad the founda- 
tions for the advancement of liberty, education and 
humanity, and in this we are not disappointed. From 
one end of the State to the other, schools have been 
established, colleges endowed, churches built, morality 
practiced and encouraged, and perhaps it may be said 
with honest pride, that no State has a more intelligent, 
valuable or useful population than our own. So soon as 
our people had reached a condition where they could 



13 

tax themselves for purposes of humanity, they built the 
Insane, the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb, and Idiot Asy- 
lums, all of which have been the source of incalculable 
good to the unfortunate beings compelled to seek refuge 
within their walls. 

It was while acting as your member of the Legislature 
that I became aware of the vast influence for good of 
these benevolent institutions, and the credit which was 
due to the pioneers of the State, under whose influence 
they were founded and encouraged. And if I was asked 
what was the distinctive feature of our people in all the 
States, which makes them superior as a race to many 
others I have visited, I should answer, because of their 
generous public charities, and the tender care they take 
of the poor unfortunates of the land, who are unable by 
the act of God to provide rationally for themselves. 

I should like, if time permitted, to detail at length 
what has been done in our country during the last half 
century, to advance the cause of humanity in the treat- 
ment of the insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb, and 
the idiotic, but I will only glance at their history for a 
moment. 

For centuries the poor unfortunate insane had been 
treated like the vilest of criminals. To protect itself, 
society loaded them with chains and handcuffs, shut 
them in the gloomiest of dungeons, the safest of prisons, 
and left them to wear their lives away behind bolts and 
bars, helpless, hopeless and forsaken. All this has been 
changed, and Ohio was one of the earliest States to 
embrace the reformation. Among the names of the 
noble men and women who were pioneers in this 
great work, I will mention but one, and that a woman, 



14 

Miss Dorothea L. Dix. Her labors in searching out the 
miserable insane, beginning in Massachusetts, her benev- 
olent and devoted self-sacrifices have rarely been equaled 
and never excelled. Those who have read the history 
of Howard, the philanthropist, in his struggles to aid the 
unfortunate victims of legal punishment in England, can 
appreciate something of her great mission. She visited 
the maniacs in their lonely cells everywhere, and by pen 
and voice called upon Congress and the State Legisla- 
tures to put a stop to the terrible injustice and sickening 
inhumanity. Brave, heroic, self-sacrificing, great woman ! 
We honor you with all our hearts. The good you 
achieved can never be known or calculated, and your 
influence will never cease to be felt through the coming 
ages. Almost at once, in answer to her call, sprung up 
over the land those noble edifices that are the pride of 
our own and sister States. The poor insane, no longer 
criminals and outcasts, found the fetters stricken from 
their limbs, and themselves ushered into spacious, well- 
ventilated halls and rooms, with wholesome food and 
nourishment. Scientific and humane physicians replaced 
the iron-hearted jailors, and undertook their cure. All 
that money and skill could do, was lavished upon them 
in the attempt to restore their reason, and fit them again 
for the society of mankind. So far successful were these 
efforts, that I believe, where cases are placed early under 
proper treatment in those institutions, over seventy per 
cent, are permanently cured. Those incurable are far 
from being wretched or outcasts. They have a certain 
enjoyment of life; they eat, drink and sleep in safety 
and peace, while a large number of them, in music, 
dancing, riding and walking, find employment and com- 



15 

parative happiness. God bless the pioneers in this great 
work. 

The history of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and those 
for the Blind, are almost equally interesting. Shut out, 
as these unfortunates are, from so much of life that is 
useful or enjoyable, they are yet educated at these insti- 
tutions, so that existence becomes perhaps, in the total, 
as satisfactory to them as the majority of their fellow 
men. I knew Mr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, the founder of 
the mode of treatment of the deaf and dumb of the 
United States. He was a noble, wholly unselfish man, 
who gave his life to this work. He married a deaf mute, 
and so gave the highest proof of his devotion to the inter- 
ests of these unfortunate people. 

Next to the loss of reason, I have always regarded 
blindness as the greatest of personal afflictions. But 
owing to the benevolence of the present age, its advance- 
ment in science and culture, the blind now achieve high 
positions as men and women of education and ability, 
and often excel in those branches of learning which are 
supposed only to be acquired by those who see. Yet I 
never pass a blind man that I do not wish it were in my 
power to open his eyes, that he might enjoy the beauty 
of the world around him, and look up at the sun, the 
moon, the stars, and into the faces of his fellow men. 
But alas, no such power has been given to mortals since 
our Lord touched the eyes of blind Bartimeus at the 
gates of Jericho, on his last journey to Jerusalem, and gave 
him not only the vision of himself, the Great Healer, but 
opened upon the poor, darkened mind of him who "was 
born blind," that panorama of beauty, the valley of the 
Jordan, in all its surpassing loveliness. No wonder "that 
he followed Jesus in the way." 



16 

Of all tasks, apparently the most hopeless was the 
attempt to ameliorate the condition of those born to 
idiocy. But even here good men and women did not 
despair ; and however loathsome the work, it was under- 
taken with zeal and cheerful courage. In our own State, 
owing almost exclusively to the influence of women, we 
have a noble Asylum for Idiots, and the success in 
teaching them has been marked and favorable. I well 
remember visiting the old institution in its infancy, and 
seeing with my own eyes the good being accomplished by 
the noble women who were giving their hearts and hands 
to this work. 

It would hardly be respectful, at this meeting of the 
Pioneer Association, if we failed to notice that we are 
celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of our nation's 
birthday, for it is only a century since the truths con- 
tained in the Declaration of Independence were given to 
the world. Most forcibly and pertinently did General 
Garfield, in his masterly oration in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, a few days ago, allude to this great act of 
our fathers. "Whence came," he says, "the immortal 
truths of the Declaration 1 ? To me this was for years the 
riddle of our history. The great doctrine of the Declar- 
ation germinated in the hearts of our fathers, and were 
developed under the new inflences of this wilderness 
world by the same subtle mystery which brings forth the 
rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
themselves, the great truths were growing under the new 
conditions, until, like the century plant, they blossomed 
into the matchless beauty of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, we 
enjoy to-day." 



17 

Let it never be said that we have failed to render due 
homage to the memory of those illustrious pioneers of 
freedom, who spread before the world, in characters of 
living light, the principles by which they were governed, 
and to the maintenance of which they pledged "their 
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." 

I have stood by the last resting places of some of the 
great heroes, statesmen and scholars of the earth. I 
have seen the mausoleum of Hadrian, the tomb of the 
Scipios, of St. Constantia and St. Helena, the daughter 
and wife of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. In 
the Vatican now stands the magnificent sarcophagus of 
Porphyry, where the ashes of his daughter were depos- 
ited. I have looked with wonder upon the costly and 
splendid tombs of the once powerful Medici family at 
Florence, whose place of sepulture is one of the wonders 
of the world. It was from this very family came Catha- 
rine de Medici, that bigoted fanatic who caused in Paris 
the frightful massacre of St. Bartholomew. I have stood 
by the remains of Napoleon, in the Church of the Inva- 
lides, where all has been done to heap dignity and honor 
upon the remains of a mortal that boundless wealth and 
national pride could do — and I have walked where his 
great rival, the Duke of Wellington, lies in his granite 
coffin, in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, while the 
measured steps of the sentry, going to and fro, showed 
how sacredly was guarded this chamber of the dead. I 
have been to the grave of Columbus, of Shakespeare and 
Scott, of Milton and Johnson, to the tombs of England's 
kings and queens, and mightiest orators and heroes. So 
have I visited the last resting places of the kings and 
queens, and great men and women of France, whose 



18 

names are familiar to us as household words. All 
over the world the traveler is called to stand in silence 
and respect over the ashes of some warrior, scholar, poet, 
statesman or author, whose fame has become a part of 
the great history of mankind. But none of those im- 
pressed me so deeply as, with uncovered head, I stood 
before the old-fashioned, grated tomb at Mt. Vernon, 
where, by the side of his wife, in a plain and simple 
white marble sarcophagus, lies all that is mortal of him 
who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
of his countrymen," our own illustrious Washington. 
Lord Brougham, in his sketches of the greatest of the 
men produced for centuries by England, France and 
America, places Washington as the most truly great of 
them all. His patriotism had no tinge of selfishness. 
His conquests were not for self-advancement, or to aid 
a wanton ambition. He served his country that she 
might become a free land, and great in the family of 
nations ; that, for all coming time, she might be the star 
of hope to the oppressed and down-trodden of the 
earth. 

Just fifty years ago, the fourth of July, 1826, died two 
of the greatest of those patriots of the Revolution — 
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both had lived 
to see the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. Roused 
from his sleep by the firing of cannon, the ringing of 
bells, and the stirring strains of martial music, Mr. Adams 
was asked if he understood the meaning of what he 
heard. "Oh, yes," he said, "it is the glorious Fourth of 
July — God bless it — God bless you all! But," says he, 
"Jefferson still survives." The music he loved best on 
earth, the rejoicings of a free people, was mingling in 



19 

his ears with the angels' song on the other side of the 
river. 

When the news fell upon the country, after many days, 
that Jefferson and Adams had passed away, the people 
seemed stunned by the blow. The nation, as with one 
heart and mind, paid its choicest honors to the memory 
of the illustrious dead. Let us recall for a moment the 
names of their co-patriots and associates. What a galaxy 
of stars ! Washington, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, 
Otis, Fisher Ames, Dr. Warren, Patrick Henry, Franklin, 
Robert Morris, and many others we could mention. 
How the eloquence and the example of these men caused 
millions of hearts to glow with patriotic fire. How the 
feeble nation rallied around that uplifted banner, upon 
which was inscribed in blazing letters, "Resistance to 
tyrants is obedience to God !" I tell you, patriotism cost 
something in those days. When Washington consulted 
the Legislature of Massachusetts as to the propriety o* 
bombarding Boston, Hancock was the first to advise it, 
if necessary to promote the cause of the Revolution, 
though most of his great wealth consisted of stores and 
houses in the city. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the period of the Ameri- 
can Revolution seemed to develop the most exalted 
character of men on both sides of the Atlantic. In 
England, Burke, Fox, Pitt, Sheridan, Camden, Erskine 
and others rose to the height of their splendid fame ; and 
on the other side, Samuel Adams, Dr. Warren, Otis, 
Patrick Henry and Josiah Quincy, with Fisher Ames, 
aroused the people to arms by the force of their genius 
and impassioned appeals. It has been said that the 
Congress of 1776 comprised the most remarkable body 



20 

of men ever convened in one deliberative assembly. 
More than one-half of them had been educated in the 
colleges of Europe or America, and all were men of 
exalted character and influence. These pioneers of free- 
dom have all gone to their rest ; but their works follow 
them. The Union they established of thirteen feeble 
States, with three millions of scattered people, is our 
Union of to-day— the wonder of the world. It has sur- 
vived the struggle of the great civil war, where a million 
of men met on the field of battle to decide whether 
freedom or slavery should rule the land, and now, with 
a population of forty million souls, is starting off upon a 
new era of prosperity and usefulness. But in comparison 
with the empires and kingdoms of the old world, our 
nation is yet in its childhood. In Italy I was pointed 
out by my guide the spot where Americus Vespucius and 
Christopher Columbus, the discoverers of America, were 
born. But he spoke of these men as he would speak of 
those who had passed away within the memory of living 
men, so lately had they lived, in comparison with the 
founders and distinguished men of his own country. To 
him a century or two seemed a small space of time for 
the growth of a nation. But the world moves with more 
rapid steps than in days gone by. Science has brought 
mankind elosely together, and the old-fashioned ways of 
life have been destroyed by the inventions of steam, 
electricity, and the results of modern thought. As I 
stood near the house where Galileo wrote some of his 
most valuable astronomical works, I felt sure, had he 
lived until to-day, he would scarcely have felt afraid of 
the Inquisition for asserting that the world was round 
and moved upon its axis. Times have changed since all 
that. 



21 

We are justly proud of our country and her free insti- 
tutions, and feel they will challenge comparison with 
the most favored lands on earth. But the work of main- 
taining its high character is committed to individuals. 
It is to them we must look to make it wiser and better. 
Men will pass away, but principles will live forever. 

Standing upon the soil of Solon, one of the earliest 
homes of the anti-slavery people of America, it is meet 
we should congratulate each other upon having lived to 
see our country no longer cursed by the presence of a 
single slave. The late Hon. Edward Wade, formerly 
your member of Congress, told me, sixteen years ago, 
that the township of Solon was the first in the United 
States to cast a political majority vote in favor of anti- 
slavery. In view of the gigantic civil war, which drenched 
the land in fraternal blood, caused alone by that "irre- 
pressible conflict between freedom and slavery," so long 
foretold, and by many hoped for; in view of the com- 
plete and overwhelming triumph of freedom and free 
institutions growing out of the struggle, you may, as a 
people, well feel proud of being the pioneers in this 
greatest of all great works. 

The time will come, in my judgment, when the colored 
men of the United States, from Maine to Louisiana, will 
unite in erecting a magnificent monument upon the soil 
of Solon, to perpetuate in honorable remembrance the 
memory of those good and true men ; and to mark the 
spot where, for the first time in the history of the coun- 
try, a brave and conscientious people dared to cast a 
majority of their votes in favor of an oppressed and 
down-trodden race. We have lived to see slavery abol- 
ished, and stricken out of existence upon this continent. 



22 

Men arc no longer property, bought and sold like beasts 
of burden. "A black man or woman is no longer an 
outcast in social life, a cipher in the courts of law, and 
a pariah in the house of God !" He has been made 
equal before the law with his white master, and walks 
the land in all the conscious pride of freedom and inde- 
pendence. 

Let us bear honorable testimony to the pioneers of 
this great reform, as we recall the labors and sufferings 
of Sandford, Lay, Woolman, Benezet, Whitefield, Hop- 
kins, Rush, Wesley, Lundy, Samson, Birney, Bailey, 
Tappan, Whitehead, Weld, Lovejoy, Chase, Burritt, 
Slade, Phillips, Giddings, and a host of other noble men, 
as well as women, who upheld the banner of the slave 
on this side of the Atlantic. In England, though Mr. 
Bayne, in his sketch of Wilberforce, speaks of him as 
the earliest opponent of anti-slave trade and abolition in 
that country, yet I believe it was Thomas Clarkson, who, 
by means of his writings and influence, induced Wilber- 
force to introduce his bill into Parliament for the abolition 
of the slave trade, in 1792, which measure he continued 
to urge until in 1807, when his bill became a law, under 
the administration of Mr. Fox. 

From that time until 1832, he ceased not his labors 
for the abolition of slavery in the colonies, when his 
efforts were crowned with success. His name should 
never be spoken by a black man without reverence, nor 
by the lover of mankind without sympathy and affection. 
If earthly honors should be paid to the memories of men 
who have served their day and generation, for services 
rendered to advance the interests of the human race, I 
can imagine none more worthy than the pioneers of anti- 



23 

slavery, the men who in the face of ridicule and con- 
tempt, of social ostracism and endless abuse, with pain, 
and stripes, and imprisonment ; amid the fires of perse- 
cution, and the frowns of the great mass of mankind, 
with tireless zeal and God-like self-sacrifice, advocated the 
cause of the poor, down trodden, helpless, hopeless 
slave, until success crowned their efforts and slavery be- 
came "as a tale that is told." 

But I must close. One by one the pioneers of your 
Society, as well as the great reforms of the last century, 
are passing away. The noble oak, with its-wide spread- 
ing arms, and ample foliage, under whose grateful shade 
man and beast have alike found shelter, yields at last to 
the hand of time, and falls prostrate upon the ground. 
The autumn, with its golden and purple glories, follows 
the summer, and the fruits of the harvest are gathered 
into storehouses, for the time when the earth shall no 
longer yield her increase. The winter follows; the spark- 
ling streams that glistened in the sunshine, and made 
glad the heart, are frozen in their channels. The fields 
once so beautiful with waving corn and grain, are deso- 
late with snow and frost. He is the wise man who, 
knowing the winter must come at last, has made ample 
preparation for its demand and necessities. And this 
history of the seasons is typical of human life. At the 
longest it has but a brief spring, summer, autumn, win- 
ter. " The days of the years of our pilgrimage are three- 
score-years-and-ten, and if, by reason of strength, they be 
fourscore, yet is their strength labor and sorrow." 

On the fifth day of July last, while I was in mid-ocean, 
on my journey home, one of your oldest members and 
friends — and one especially beloved and honored by me 



24 

and mine — a man known personally to nearly all of you, 
a man of ripe and generous culture, of great learning, of 
stainless character, a citizen who in every relation of life 
he had been called to fill, had adorned both public and 
private station, distinguished for the valuable services he 
had rendered the people among whom he had lived for 
half a century, Judge Samuel Starkweather, of Cleve- 
land, suddenly was stricken down and died. He was 
conversing in his usual winning manner, seated upon his 
bedside, when, without a moment's hesitation, he 
stretched himself at full length upon his bed, closed 
his eyes with calm dignity and composure, and, with the 
faith of the Patriarchs of old, went out to join the fathers. 
Life and its solemn obligations for him was ended. But 
it was a life so rich in human happiness and good works, 
it could be said, in a measure, to have been complete. 

If Judge Starkweather had one trait of character 
especially peculiar to himself, it was his strong, sincere, 
hearty love of his fellow men. The warm and sympa- 
thetic nature which made him the delight of home and 
the social circle, did not grow cold as he mingled in the 
world with his fellows. He had a kind word for every 
man, however humble his station — a tone of familiarity 
and good will that gave his conversation an unspeakable 
charm ; and all this came because it was his nature to 
love mankind. He could no more help it, than the 
Autumn sun as it rises above the horizon, can help 
bathing the earth in new beauty and splendor. 

To many of the older pioneers here, whom for a 
quarter of a century I have known so intimately — in 
social and public life — I shall to-day, in all probability, 
say, "good-bye" for the last time. During my entire 



25 

active manhood you have been my faithful, earnest 
friends, and I find it hard to express in fitting words my 
sense of obligation. Such ties are not easily formed, 
and such friendships are hard to sever. But I humbly 
trust, as the days of the years of your pilgrimage draw to 
a close and this earthly house of your tabernacle shall be 
dissolved, you may, strong in the faith of your Puritan 
fathers, and relying upon the promises which to them 
were a stay and staff, be led safely up to the gates of that 
Celestial city, over whose portals is inscribed in letters of 
gold, " Inasmuch as ye have been faithful over a few 
things I will make thee ruler over many ; enter thou 

INTO THE JOYS OF THY LORD." 



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